This
article
is one
of a series
where I give my ideas on aspects of Reiki and/or energy work. The pages
are intended to give some "food for thought" and some are only my
viewpoint. While a number of facts may be included, you should decide
for yourself how much (if any) of the content feels right to you.

As I mentioned in Part 1, when
most students come to me for master level training, especially if they
are new to my Reiki classes, they usually are very keen on anything to
do with the Reiki attunement. In the distant class most will jump
right away past the class checklist to the section on attunements,
especially the sample videos I have (even though they are
pretty old productions from 2001.) So this particular topic includes some thoughts I have shared on this very important part of the
class.

In the original Reiki society, Mr. Doi told me that the
shihan or master would check the students' energies when they met.
He said that in the Gakkai, one of the conditions that a student had to
meet in order to be allowed into the Okuden level, was that his/her Reiki
energy had to have a certain strength to it.

Note that this isn’t a normal requirement
of most Reiki systems anymore, but it may be of interest to you. If you
feel it is helpful at any given time, you might privately share this with the
student.
I have found that
with enough natural ability or lots of practice sensing various energies
(of Reiki, symbols, people, plants, foods, places, etc.) that you can
grow to do this yourself, and not just on others but with your own
Reiki energy. It is even possible to do it from a distance.
Natural healers have done this for ages, also people with
clairvoyant/clairsentient abilities.

In a Reiki class a good time to do this is before and after giving
attunements or reiju. Before the attunement, as you are either
explaining what you plan to do, or as you are setting up the students
for the ceremony you might try sensing each students Reiki energy,
especially the version of Reiki you plan to share with them.

A simple method is to flow your own Reiki energy as strong as you can,
and measure it. Then as you work with each student, reach out to
sense the same version of Reiki energy; or if you wish, their overall
Reiki or higher vibrational energies. Compare yours and theirs
and decide how theirs feels to you.

After the ceremony, you can do this as well, but I find it is even more
exact if you do it just before the end of the class, after they have
been practicing with their new or upgraded energies for the
duration. This then indicates how much they have integrated the changes during class.

You might also check your own Reiki energy before and after the
class. You will have been holding an energy space for the
students not only during
attunements/reiju, but possibly at other moments in the class as well
(as
when joining in with practice Reiki sessions.)

This usually
is not a concern for many Reiki Masters, but you might have to decide
which attunement/reiju ceremony to use. In some training methods
like Threshold Reiki the master level student learns more than one
version of a Reiki attunement ceremony. Some methods are part of
a certain style of Reiki - like Gendai Reiki or Karuna Reiki - and so
there really is no choice other than whatever is taught in that
style. But with the knowledge of some of the original reiju
ceremonies from Japan and those shared by Mr. Doi during the 5 URRI conferences
(1999-2003) Reiki Masters wishing to use something shorter than Western
Reiki ceremonies might decide to select one of these.

You
have a certain responsibility to those you attune. This mainly
applies to the giving of attunements or reiju outside of a class when
there might be a limited amount of time to help the recipient
understand what he or she has been given, and how the Reiki energy may
then be made use of. Also, in these cases it's important to be
available afterwards in case a recipient experiences some form of
integration cleansing, as mentioned in Part 2 - 3. of this
article. So even though you may be showing a very generous spirit
of sharing a free attunement on the spot for whatever reason, please
do consider and determine how knowledgeable about Reiki your recipient
may be, and what if any support they may require afterwards.

And finally, some time ago I wrote an article on "Perfecting Reiki Attunements and Reiju."
It is worthwhile to have a read of this before your Reiki classes,
especially as it is often very useful for reproducing exact Reiki
energies your teacher may have used on you. Another article
you may wish to read is the "Origin
of the Reiki Attunement" just to get some background on the history of this aspect of Reiki training.